


your hands are tough but they are where mine belong in

by skyekingsleigh



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Based on a Tumblr Post, F/M, Fluff, Holding Hands, Pre-Relationship, Spideychelle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 15:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16349207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyekingsleigh/pseuds/skyekingsleigh
Summary: Five times Peter Parker tries (and fails) to hold Mj's hand





	your hands are tough but they are where mine belong in

**Author's Note:**

> honestly, i have the biggest crush on zendaya and i'm all for this ship. can't wait for far from home. title from taylor swift's song ours because why not.

**_Five times Peter Parker tries (and fails) to hold Mj's hand_ **

 

**Attempt #1**

 

Okay, Michelle had to admit that Peter’s first attempt at holding her hand was pretty subtle. Honestly, she wouldn’t have noticed at all if it weren’t for Ned’s teasing smirk and side glances the entire time.

It was the final week of sophomore year and they were sitting in the cafeteria like usual, with Ned and Mj across Peter. The two nerds were already half-way finished with munching on their respective lunches when Peter suddenly jumped in his seat and turned to her with creepy wide eyes, biting his lip. 

“Mj, you’re pretty intimidating,” he started, which caused her to quirk an eyebrow at him over her book of the day and Ned to bite back a groan. “Uh, I-i mean, you’re, you know, uh…you.”

She only frowns at him, already prepared to put her focus back on her book but not before muttering, “Spit it out, Parker.”

“I think we should, like, arm-wrestle.” This time Ned didn’t bother to hide his groan, shoving his half-eaten sandwich in his mouth to recover from secondhand embarrassment. “I mean, you know, to test a, uh, s-scientific theory.”

Michelle momentarily gazed back and forth from Ned to Peter and saw them mouthing aggressively to each other as if she wasn’t right _there_. And then she sees that Peter’s hand is shaking and he’s sweating and turning red and oh, she gets it now. That damn dork. _Torpe_ , as Ned’s mom would call him. So before she could stop herself, she finds that her right elbow had already been propped on the table and arm already in position, looking at him with a pointed look. 

“Prepare to lose,” she challenges while he gapes at her for a few seconds. “Just don’t cry when you do, because Ned and I will be obligated to bring this moment up your entire life.”

And okay, she very much appreciates the fact that his hand wasn’t clammy like she thought it was going to be, and she very well could smack him for so obviously letting her win because _duh_ , there’s no way he’d lose to her when he’s freaking Spiderman–but Mj wasn’t supposed to know that so shh– and yeah. She very much appreciates his dazed smile after she so rightfully brags about her win. She’s pretty sure it wasn’t because of the arm-wrestling that just happened, and Ned made a point to smirk and high-five Peter like that wouldn’t give them away, but yeah. 

 

**Attempt #2**

 

Don’t take it against her, because she’s, like, entitled to do it because Ned and Peter were both so _bad_ at keeping secrets, but Michelle really took it upon herself to tease the latter and drop hints that she knew about his spandex shenanigans at night. Sue her for finding amusement in watching Peter’s life like a drama. Honestly, he provides the most entertainment in Mj’s short seventeen years of life.

So they were chilling in Peter’s living room and May’s making dinner (that they were prepared to act like they loved because it’s _May_ and she’s amazing but she’s a terrible cook) and Ned already has tacos hidden in his backpack in Peter’s room (apparently backpacks can be thermal because he insisted that the tacos will be safe _and_ warm inside his bag and refused to take it out) (Mj was pretty sure Ned was just scared of May finding out he smuggled food for later and would hurt her feelings). Peter was trying to cram for a Lit paper on Ned’s laptop, and Mj tries to pretend not to notice the already healing cuts on his knuckles that he didn’t even have an explanation for. 

“I think I need a break from school,” Ned declares, plopping back on the cheap couch and sighing for dramatic effect. “And I also need more Mexican food to get back to my roots.”

Peter and Mj shared a look. “Dude, you’re Filipino.”

“Am I?”

“I am pretty sure you are, yes,” Peter supplied, still typing furiously on Ned’s laptop. 

Ned frowned for a moment before mumbling to himself. “Shit.”

Peter finally looked up, amusement evident in his eyes. “You okay, man?”

“Yeah,” he sighs. “I think I need _Sinigang_ to cleanse my soul after that momentarily lapse of judgment and false nationalism but I’ll be fine.”

“I feel you, man.”

Mj snapped her book close and looked at the two of them in disgust. “You guys are losers.”

It was then that Peter’s eyes drifted towards her hand–which she noticed but didn’t say anything– and his face lit up in excitement. “Mj, you painted your nails!”

She looked down at her own hands, noting the blue and red nail polish coating her fingernails, and she even asked the manicurist to put webs on her ring finger for design. Holding back a smirk, she held out her hands towards Peter. “Yeah, it’s inspired by friendly neighborhood spider-boy. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Go on, hit me.”

He stuttered, like Mj had guessed he would, and hesitatingly took her hands into his. Ned was staring at the two of them in earnest and a little bit of ‘just kiss already’ but Peter had dropped her hand before anything could really happen. “It’s nice.”

“Huh,” she mused, again screaming in her mind to ‘just fucking hold my hand, goddammit’ but what can she do? “Should’ve went with Black Panther colors instead. He’s hotter.”

Peter gaped, offended (he tried to hide it but it’s _Peter_ , so) and Ned guffawed loudly, but May called for them (“Time to eat, kids! Tonight’s Indian!”) so Mj shrugged at Peter in nonchalance and headed first to the dining area. 

“She got you there, Spidey,” Ned chuckled in a low voice. “She got you there.”

 

**Attempt #3**

 

This wasn’t a date. They weren’t dating, because dating means that Peter actually had the nerve to ask her out and that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Mj was well aware of the on-going bet circulating in the AcaDec team and was also aware that Ned was betting on her to be the one to make the first move, but she hasn’t decided yet if she’s going to humor her best friend or not. (“Michelle, it’s fifty bucks against Flash!”) And yeah, okay, him winning against Flash would definitely be a plus, but she _hasn’t decided yet_ , alright?

Anyways, due to Ned’s strong urge to win, he decided that it would be a good idea to ditch his two best friends on a movie friendly date that the he and Peter had been planning since, like, the trailer for the newest X-men movie came out and Michelle was supposed to be just a tag-along. So now there were two. 

“I’m going to kill Ned and take his family’s recipes,” Michelle declared under her breath, trying to focus on the book she was reading as she and Peter walk to the movies from the subway. 

Peter tried to keep up with her slow strides, scratching the back of his neck. “Uh, as much as I agree with you, I don’t want you to end up in jail. And we kind of need Ned in our lives, so.”

“Do you want me to kill you as well?” she narrowed his eyes. “But don’t you worry, I won’t touch May’s recipes.”

“On behalf of May, I am offended. But that is sort of for your own good, so.”

Michelle hummed but continued to read, her strides becoming slower and slower with each minute. Peter glanced at his wristwatch impatiently before finally having the guts to grab her hand. “Come on, we’re going to be late!”

Okay. Fine. She’ll admit. She was a little bit–only a little bit–caught off guard. But, like, hey, _way to go Peter_. Michelle would have blushed ( _shut up_ ) if he didn’t drop her hand like it was on fire the minute the movie theater came into view. 

_Goddammit, Parker._

 

**Attempt #4**

 

It was December, a few months into their junior year, and Mj knows that Peter is Spiderman because she’s _Mj_ and she’s not obsessive, okay? She’s just observant. 

It happened a little bit like this:

Michelle was walking home from the Library (her backpack was weighed down by five new books that she borrowed because her allowance isn’t enough to buy new ones every week) and for once she’s not reading. She has her ear buds plucked in her ears and she’s listening to Ned’s _OPM_ playlist (she doesn’t understand a word but who the hell cares) when a tall dude–and she means _tall_ , because by normal standards Michelle’s considered tall but this guy is like a head taller than her–grabbed her backpack and she was screaming because where the hell would she find the money to replace those? 

Suddenly Peter–Spiderman or whatever–shows up, and he’s bleeding pretty badly on his side but he somehow managed to gather enough strength to web up the mugger in point five seconds. He hands her backpack back to her, and then Michelle’s flying and she’s sort of screaming but everything was pretty blurry at the moment. 

They land on Michelle’s apartment complex’s roof with a thud, and Peter’s grasping his sides and his red suit is _redder_ , so that means one bad little thing. 

Trying to catch her breath, Mj breathes out. “So that’s why you missed AcaDec practice.”

He sputtered and panicked and he’s more _Peter_ than ever, so Mj just shoots him an annoyed look before throwing a peace sign and climbing down the fire exit.

And now she knows.

So of course she took full advantage of Peter swinging her home so she didn’t have to waste money on commuting (and she could save more for new books) but it’s December now and she’s freezing possibly to death and Peter had his own heater in his stupid suit so she has to suffer alone. 

“If I die from hypothermia, I’m going to haunt you in your sleep forever,” She tells him through the trembling of her chin and the chattering of her teeth, and she could only imagine his puppy eyes with the way he tilts his head to the side.

That’s when she noticed that hey, Peter’s shivering too, and that really doesn’t make any sense especially when he says, “I’d die with you.”

Like any other time that he swings her home, they land on her apartment’s roof and Mj wrapped her arms around herself and frowned. “What do you mean? Did you forget to turn on your heater or something?”

“D-didn’t turn it on.”

“What?” 

“Didn’t want you to die of hypothermia alone??” He scratched the back of his neck before stepping towards her when he saw Mj’s look of disbelief. “I’m not shitting you, I swear.” He paused before grabbing her hands. “Look, my hands are freezing.”

It’s cold and Mj’s trying to breathe normally and if anyone asks, she was _not_ blushing, she was just really freezing, alright? Looking down at their joined hands, she pinches the material of his suit. “I can’t really feel your hands through your suit, dork.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.”

And then he lets go, stepping backwards until he’s on the very edge of the roof. “I should go. Bye.”

How many times had Mj thought ‘goddammit Parker?’ Not that it matters because _goddammit, Parker._

 

**Attempt #5**

 

Michelle’s favorite hand signal would probably _the finger_ , and throughout the course of their friendship, Ned and Peter took it upon themselves to, like, consider this act a sign of affection from her–which it totally was not. 

Anyways.

It was a Friday and for once, Michelle wasn’t busy trying to formulate questions for AcaDec practice because they just won regionals, and nationals isn’t for like two months, so she was sitting on the floor of Peter’s room reading while simultaneously trying to ignore Ned and Peter’s pointless argument about who knows what. 

“Seriously man, no one knows science jokes better than I do, don’t even try to go there,” Peter shakes his head, throwing a fry at Ned who opened his mouth to catch it but didn’t make any attempt to move, so it just hit him square on the face before dropping to the bed. 

Ned huffs, wiping his now oily face before crossing his arms over his chest. “Fine. Let’s ask Mj.” She was already shaking her head before they even turned to her but _surprise_ , they still did. “Mj, who makes better science jokes?”

So, naturally, she flipped them off without so much as glancing at them, but before she could draw her hand back Peter had already grabbed it.

“Woah,” he says, examining her hand. “Your hands are like super small, which is weird because you’re like super tall.”

She frowns at him, putting her book down. “Or yours are just freakishly huge.”

“My body parts are perfectly proportional, thank you very much,” He defends before mumbling, “Let’s compare.”

So Michelle just tensely sat there while Peter was measuring just how much his hand was bigger than hers, but she’s Michelle so really she says, “I still have an inch on you, Parker. Doesn’t matter whose hands are bigger as long as I’m still taller.”

Peter narrowed his eyes at her. “Give me two months and that inch will cease to exist.” And he still hasn’t let go of her hand, which, wow, kudos to him.

Surprisingly (not) Ned had been the one to ruin the moment this time by trying–and failing– to discreetly snap a photo of the two of them but failing to turn off both the sound and the flash so.

Ned shrugged, tossing his phone back. “I tried.”

 

**++bonus**

 

Michelle was stressed, and Mr. Harrington was stressed, and the bus driver was probably also stressed because it’s one day to Nationals and they had a lot to live up to with last year’s win and she wasn’t _Liz_ , alright?

And thank god for her friends, honestly, because before she could chew her hand off Ned was already offering popcorn (she doesn’t ask where he got it from) so that she could stress-eat and Peter had made–or attempted to make, really–a flower out of his web fluid to make her feel better and she also doesn’t ask how he did that in a bus filled with nosy geniuses because, like, _thank god_ for her friends.

“I hate you guys,” she frowns. “But, also, I really love you guys??”

And yes, she knows she said ‘you guys’ twice but that didn’t stop spiderdork to blush and grin like the words were only meant for him, and maybe they were, but she also loves Ned so (not in _that_ way but yeah).

And then it was Nationals, and they were clad in their orange blazers and Michelle almost had a panic attack when she thought that she ran out of hair ties but Cindy had an extra one so she’s all good, she thinks. The only problem was they had 5 minutes before starting and Peter was no where to be found and Mj swears if he pulls another stunt like last year, she was not going to talk to him for a month. Okay, maybe three weeks at most, but only because she could only tolerate his puppy looks so much. But Peter knew how much this meant to Mj, and if he doesn’t show up she’s going to be disappointed in him and she never wants to be disappointed in Peter because he’s, like, perfect.

One minute. 

The team was asked to sit down and test their buzzers and Michelle could feel cold sweat dripping down her forehead. She’s slowly trying to accept that she shouldn’t have expected Peter to show up at the same time glaring at Ned knowingly. 

“He promised to be here,” she whispered harshly, and Ned could only look frustratingly and sympathetically at her. 

“I know.”

There’s an opening prayer because they were competing against a Catholic school, and then they were singing the National Anthem and Mj was trying really hard to ignore the empty seat next to her but it was really hard. 

But then just as they sat down, she hears Ned hissing a quiet “Yes!” and suddenly the empty seat next to her wasn’t empty anymore. Peter, in all his sweaty, panting, bruise-forming-on-his-left-jaw glory, showed. 

“You’re here,” She says, trying to sound nonchalant. 

He had the audacity to grin at her, huffing. “I’m here.”

The scores were tied, and Peter was bouncing his legs really swiftly but Mj couldn’t find it in herself to stop him because she was also fidgeting, and from her spot she could see Mr. Harrington with his eyes closed as if in prayer. 

“What are the two main body parts of all arachnids?” The question hangs in the air, and Mj’s racking her brain because she had asked probably thousands of spider-related questions to tease Peter before but now she’s coming up with nothing, but that doesn’t matter because Flash had already impulsively pushed the buzzer and now there’s silence, silence, _silence._

“Uh…” Flash trailed off, looking at his teammates in alarm and making it obvious that he didn’t know the answer and Mj was ready to tear his hair out when Peter suddenly lunges–really, he _lunges_ –towards his mic. 

“It’s, uh, cephalothorax and an abdomen.”

Pause. “Correct. Midtown School of Science and Technology once again takes home…” 

The announcement was a blur to Mj’s ears as the whole AcaDec team jumped up and before she knew it she had her arms around Peter who was frozen and stuttering like usual. “I was ready to _end_ you, Parker.”

“I know.”

“You win this time,” she praises before letting go to congratulate the others. 

Wide-eyed, Peter approached Ned and they did their handshake before his best friend patted him on the back. “Dude, Mj just _hugged_ you. It’s time, man.”

The whole walk back to the hotel, Mj was trying to ignore the fact that Peter was walking too close to her and that his hands were shaking. Ned joined the others and were already ahead of them, leaving Mj and Peter to trail behind. 

She hears him take a deep breath before his hands brushed with hers, but he pulls away after a second and cleared his throat.

Michelle wanted to roll her eyes _so bad_ , but at the same time she’s kind of tired of this tiptoeing around each other thing that they had going on, so the next time he brushes their hands together, she grabs his hand and intertwined their fingers before he could pull away. “Fucking _commit to it_ , Parker.”

He had sputtered out a response but she just raised an eyebrow at him, making him sigh shakily and grip her hand in response. “Please don’t tell Ned.”

“Are you kidding me?” she smirked, tugging him closer. “I’m telling May.”

In front of them, they could hear Ned bursting out in laughter and Peter’s gaping and is almost as red as his suit, but the important thing was that they didn’t let go until it was absolutely necessary to, and the next Monday their hands clasped together like magnets the second they were within a feet from each other. 

So yeah, his five failed attempts? Totally worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Torpe - Tagalog: being too shy to pursue amorous desires
> 
> Sinigang - a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour and savoury taste most often associated with tamarind (Filipino: sampalok)
> 
> OPM - Original Pilipino (Filipino) Music


End file.
